What I always find frustrating is why we wouldn't launch the dispute right away. Knowing that we've started the process and that they know it's started, wouldn't there be more incentive for them to create a negotiation?

If you don't launch the action—like Italy on pasta or durum, for example, or China now on canola—they may not take you seriously. Once you launch it, then they take you seriously. I think even with softwood lumber, until you launch it and get it close to resolution, they won't take it seriously.

I can even use the example of wine and Australia taking us to the WTO on the excise tax. I'd like to think that now that we're close to seeing that come to fruition, we're actually going to take it seriously and maybe negotiate something with Australia and other countries on this.

Why do we wait so long to launch these appeals? As Mr. Sarai said, when you're in the softwood lumber industry or any other industry, that collateral damage over that period of time as you wait is so expensive and damaging. It creates a scenario where you can't recover. I think a lot of countries know that, so they just stall it and stall it knowing that the competition will be gone in three years anyway.